


An Author's Muse

by orphan_account



Category: One Direction (Band)
Genre: AU, Bullying, Cute, High School, Liam - Freeform, M/M, zayn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-08
Updated: 2015-07-08
Packaged: 2018-04-08 07:58:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 2,073
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4296861
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/orphan_account/pseuds/orphan_account
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Zayn takes a vulnerable, shy Liam under his wing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Chapter One: A Refusal

“Nah lads, it’s alright. I’ll catch up you later, down the street or somethin’.” 

The teenaged boys shook their heads, laughing callously at their ‘mate’. One even joked, “Goin’ to see lover-boy again, hey?”

The words didn’t hit him like they were intended to- they barely even dinted the surface of his time-hardened esteem. 

“Just go, please.”

Even from guys he thought to be his closest friends came ignorant whispers as they exited the room and shuttled down the hallway in their pack.

“Li-Li, are you alright?” 

Zayn rushed to the corner, crouching by the cowering Liam’s side. He placed a gently weighted hand on his shoulder to comfort him.

The small, nervous hearted Liam melted as the Bradford boy’s softly spoken words dripped over him like honey.

“W-what did you say?” He stuttered, forcing himself to keep his eyes away from Zayn’s. 

They were like a hero’s kryptonite, richly hazel and flecked with luxurious gold, rimmed with long, dark eyelashes. If he indulged in the pleasure of staring into them, his use of words would be sure to dissolve completely.

“Don’t fret, love. Just asked if you were okay, s’all.” 

“No, like…You called me, like, Li-Li or something…”

For the first time in years, the worshipped cool-kid of the school blushed. It burned across his cheeks, causing him to timidly raise a hand to his face.

“I-I did? Oh, aha, I guess it just came out, ha. I’ve been calling you that in my head recently, must’ve just slipped. Sorry, uh, Liam.”

“No, don’t be sorry…It’s very sweet, I’ve never had a nickname before. I like it.”

“Never? Not even from your parents?”

thought back to the countless silent nights of his home, broken only with the occasional grumble about the abysmal weather of late or the crashing stock market or other gloomy things that he didn’t wish to concern himself with.

“Not nice ones anyway.”

Zayn took a deep breath, bracing himself to do something that had been playing on his mind for weeks. The idea of rejection stung in his chest, but regardless, he plucked up the courage to slip his own slender, elegant hand into Liam’s.

“That’s so sad, you poor little darling. Let me walk you home?” His words were laced heavily with empathy, something that Liam hadn’t encountered often in this dusty old school.

“Y-yes, thank you…That would be nice. But…”

Zayn’s brow furrowed as he stood Liam up, gripping his hand tightly.

“But what, Li?”

“Well, you…Like, aren’t your friends gonna see? Guys like you can’t be seen like with guys like me, isn’t that how it works? I mean, you’re cool and smart and popular and, like, super handsome…’

This time, the both of them endured a raging pink blush.

“And I’m just Liam, just that kid, the wallflower.”

“Oh, Li, It’s not like that at all! I mean, maybe it is- but it honestly doesn’t bother me. You know, I’m actually a massive nerd, I-“

“Please, leave it, Zayn. I’ll just walk myself home. Thank you, for, you know, offering.”

He lifted his bag, the tears pricking dangerously quickly in his shy little eyes.

“Bye.”

In a panicked gaze across the room, Liam met his weakness. Shiny, dark eyes met his, hidden from him for a painful second by softly drooped eyelashes, and then revealed again in the most spectacular manner, sparkling angelically in the dappled sunlight.

“T-Thanks for checking on me, though.”

Zayn gave a half-smile, his heart dropping at the refusal of his offer. Although, after this many years pretending to be someone he wasn’t, masking himself was now a natural motion.

“Oh, okay Liam. Well, uh, stay safe. Don’t let those boys touch you, ok? If they do, come tell me. A’ight?”

Liam’s words scrambled on his tongue, pushing past each other to make a quick escape.

“Sure, w-will do, seeya, bye,” He eventually muttered, practically shaking as he pushed himself around the corner and out of Zayn’s field of vision.

He thought to himself that he’d have to build a hell of a lot of confidence for this to work, or some better flirting skills, maybe.

It was 11 pm in the sleepy little town, not that the boy named Zayn Javadd had gotten a wink of sleep. He sat on the end of his quilted single bed, fiddling with the keys on his laptop’s keyboard. His intention was to add a chapter to the novel he was writing, but thus far he had only achieved a menacing glare from the blinking cursor. 

He thought hard at what to add- what to pick from reality and disperse into this little tale of his, what to carefully filter and what to dream of.

“I peered over at my sleeping spouse, all placid and peaceful in his slumber. I thought back to that day when he told me he’d never even had a nickname,’ he typed, ‘back in the days where he wouldn’t even let me walk him home.”

It was a love story, and it was only the beginning.


	2. A Lunchtime Date

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get tense in the college cafeteria.

He rehearsed the words in his mind, cycling over them with a confident, proud voice.

“Um, excuse me, hi, may I please have the, uh, fish fingers, please?” Confidence and pride, ha.

Liam could feel the sweat pooling at the bottom of his spine beneath the buttoned school-shirt, a social anxiety like no other made even ordering lunch a near-impossible task.

“Sorry Darlin’, none of ‘em left. What else y’like, Sweetheart?”

Shit. His smooth, well-rehearsed ploy was not prepared enough to withstand a fish-finger related crisis such as this.

“I, um, I’ll just, I’m….Nothing.” He spluttered, ducking quickly through the hungry cafeteria-goers to his table, a noticeable grimace displayed on his face.

He sucked in a sharp breath as he sat, finally alone and away from the noise and the questions and the people. He let his mind wander to a happier place, clean and safe and all alone. Well, the new and improved happy place did sometimes include another boy. A boy who took the form of a saviour of sorts, breezing in and out of this tranquil place, helping him, speaking and listening, smiling. A boy he could lean on, trust. A boy with raven hair and dark eyes, perfect olive skin and-

“Li…Li, Liam, Li? Anyone home?”

Liam had to blink his eyes twice, hard, to re-assure himself of his reality. It wasn’t the happy place, it was the college cafeteria. But alas, it was true- this gorgeous boy was indeed hovering just centimetres away from his face.

“Huh?”

Those exceptionally maintained eyebrows arched upwards, bringing with it a dazzling white smile.

“Oh, Li! What happened, I been callin’ ya for two minutes straight!”

Liam hung his head low, staring nonchalantly at space his fish fingers would have occupied. 

“Sorry.”

Zayn let out a slight laugh as he sat, his leg brushing upon Liam’s for just a moment. Even so, it gave Liam the slightest little tingle of elation and allowed him to look up from the scratched plastic table.

“Liam, seriously? Don’t be sorry, love. You’re always saying sorry about things. Maybe if you took just a second to realise you’re actually very handsome- and smart- you’d be a little surer of yourself. Now, where’s this lunch of yours? Where’s your fish fingers?”

It took Liam a moment to form his reply; “How’d you know ‘bout my fish fingers?”

Realising now how embarrassing the statement was, he cleared his throat and whispered shyly in Liam’s ear.

“I do tend to stare at you a bit, you could say I… ‘Study’ you. Hope that’s not too creepy, aha.”

Liam about to add a sincere ‘just a little,’ but was cut off after a blow to the back of the head from a buttered bread roll. 

“Oi Zayn, get out of the way! Unless, of course, you want to share my plate of rolls with your lover-boy! C’mon, play it with us Zayn, ‘hit the target’, oh, whoops, I mean ‘hit the ugly gay! Ha!” Spoke a voice, from the general direction in which the original baked good was launched.

“Wow, aren’t you just so witty. Lads, s’enough of that now. If you could all just-“

A chorus of testosterone-fuelled cheers sounded as the owner of the first voice chimed in again. 

“I knew it, you’re a faggot, just like him! You are! Ha!”

Laughter came from those who were brave enough, while most just sat and smiled in enjoyment of their new-found source of entertainment.

“C’mon, Li. Don’t be bothered by those assholes. You okay?”

A flustered Liam rubbed the back of his head nervously, mumbling that he was fine. And he was, however the crumbs haphazardly scattered through his sandy brown hair did bother him a little, and the gaze of his fellow schoolmates made him feel like his skin was on fire. He was somewhat accustomed to its burn.

“How’s about we go outside for some air, hey?” Zayn asked, crouching beside the somewhat the other boy and whispering in his ear.

“Yeah, yeah.” He nodded, trying desperately to appear unfazed by Zayn’s quick movement toward him, resulting in a tightly squeezed hand.

Zayn smoothly led him out the back doors of the cafeteria, practically gliding around the tables in a manner that Liam likened to a swan. He liked that idea, that Zayn was a majestic, beautiful swan in his empty, ordinary lake. He thought that maybe he was the ugly duckling. It was decided that he would tell Zayn of his swan/duckling theory one day.

The muggy air swarmed around, and Liam gulped it in loudly as he sat against the red-brick wall.

“Well done, Li. I’m proud of you. You handled that so well, love.” Zayn said, a deep exhale escaping his lips as he pressed his back against the wall and sunk himself down to the ground.

“Mmm, only because I’ve done it before.”

Zayn froze his train of thought, turning to face Liam with a great deal of confusion. 

“Wh-what do you mean?”

Liam considered his options carefully, using a process of elimination to deliberate that the truth was the best way to handle the situation.

“Because, Zaynie- can I call you Zaynie? - Okay, good, well… I used to be one of them. I used to be one of you.”

Zayn laughed, shaking his head. “Straight? Yeah, weren’t we all? Ha, haha.”

Liam waited for the sound to subside to a giggle, before continuing.

“No, popular. I used to be popular. I know it doesn’t seem like it now, I’m practically the most picked-on kid in the school. But I used to be just like you, Zaynie. Hangin’ out with those jocks all the time ‘n stuff. After a while they kinda noticed how I wasn’t trying to pick up a chick every 10 seconds or cat-call ‘em down the mall on Saturday afternoons, like they did. After, like, a year, they finally figured me out. Didn’t hesitate one second to chuck me out and pretend we were never more than strangers. Then you moved to the school and made me feel special again, took me under your wing. I’m not sure why, but you did. That’s why, Zaynie, why I didn’t wanna let you walk me home, or to have you sit next to me today. That’s why they said all that shit about you being just like me. I don’t want you to be just like me, Zaynie, I don’t want you to get hurt like I did.”

And slowly, the dark-haired boy began to crumble, the whole comprehension of his current being having changed in a single moment of speech. The tears welled in his eyes, blurring his view and fogging the clarity of his mind. 

He leaned gently onto the other boy’s shoulder, sniffling softly into his warm, starchy shirt.

“Liam, I… I would trade anything in this world to be just like you. You’ve been through so much and held it all together so well…. You’re….brave.”

Liam laced his hand with Zayn’s, and nuzzled softly into the gradual curve of his neck. It felt odd to him that this interaction could be so new but at the same time stimulate a comfort and familiarity that overrode his every other sense.

That night, Zayn worked determinedly on his novel. The chapters almost seemed to write themselves.

**Author's Note:**

> more chapters to come, stay posted lmao //  
> x


End file.
